130 Years of Powering Higginsville: A Legacy of Service and Ongoing Upgrades

In the heart of Lafayette County, the City of Higginsville has built a legacy of service and reliability. 2024 marks the 130th year that the City of Higginsville, Missouri has provided continuous electric operation to its community. For over a century, the city's utility departments have supplied residents with more than just power and water. They have delivered peace of mind, knowing that essential services are always there when needed. 

“It’s kind of an old-timey, down-to-earth, close-knit community. Everybody helps everybody,” said Ron Kumm, Electric Superintendent at City of Higginsville. 

Keeping electric service going for that long requires regular updates to the system. A 40-megawatt twin-pack unit was added in 1996 to help build capacity with nearby Kansas City Power & Light. The unit was added to the Missouri Public Energy Pool (MoPEP) portfolio in 2016. In 2012 Higginsville also installed a power plant containing a 4.6-megawatt turbine and an additional 1.3-megawatt unit, which acts as a backup if power goes out at the I-70 and Hwy 13 junction for more than five minutes. 

Upgrades continue to be the name of the game in Higginsville. They began transitioning to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in 2021 for both electric and water. While the COVID-19 supply chain issues caused delays for the project, they are excited to wrap up this fall and customers are enjoying having a portal to check their usage. 

Next on the list of upgrades is updating 69kv breakers from OCB breakers to median vacuum breakers. This will include all circuit breakers and tie breakers. They’ll also update all relaying to SEL relays.

“That’s a big deal. That’s probably the weakest link in our system right now,” said Kumm. “It will be a lot more reliable, and it gives you a lot more data because we can interrogate them and see what happened, so that will be nice.”

The People Behind Higginsville’s Electric Utility Success

Kumm is hopeful that these upgrades will be useful for upcoming rate studies, which they plan to begin next year. But the Higginsville team knows it’s not just about the electricity that powers their homes—it’s about the people behind the scenes who make it all possible. The team currently consists of four employees at the power plant and six on the line crew. 

“They’re all from Higginsville and have ties to the community. Our system’s probably one of the best around,” said Kumm. “We do all our under bores, we do all of our own pole changeouts. I mean, you name it, we do it.”

The Higginsville crew provides coverage far beyond their local area. They’ve responded to more than five mutual aid calls this year, including Hurricane Milton which hit Florida in early October. Not only does participation in mutual aid events offer expanded training opportunities, but Kumm says it also helps the utility compete financially with nearby utilities that offer more pay. 

Providing competitive compensation continues to be a challenge for municipal utilities, especially those located near bigger communities. Higginsville is getting creative by paying for on-call time and is working with the City Administrator to add additional paid holidays. 

“It’s just trying to figure out ways to keep the guys here because we’ve got a really good group of guys,” said Kumm.

Higginsville staff contributes to the community service spirit, especially regarding in-kind contributions from the utility department. Providing electricity for events such as the Higginsville County Fair and Christmas decorations, closing streets for parades, and lighting for streets, ball fields, and the splash pad are just a few of the ways Higginsville utilities benefit the community. 

“Saves the community money, and makes life better for everybody,” said Kumm. 

Staying ahead of regulations, upgrading infrastructure, and looking to the future

It’s been a busy year for the water and wastewater department as well. Overseen by Brandon Craig, the team not only manages a 2.5 million-gallon water treatment plant and a 37-mile network of wastewater collection, but they also provide drinking water for three nearby communities and a rural water district. 

The department’s biggest task has been keeping up with changing regulations. Their lead service line inventory was submitted ahead of schedule, and letters were sent to customers. Testing has begun for PFAS in the water system with no detections thus far. 

While focusing on compliance, the team is also working on infrastructure upgrades. The water plant was built in 1987, so filter panels and filter wash upgrades were necessary. They’ve also upgraded the radio system to an internet-based system so that it works well with the raw pump, the pumps at the booster station, and all the tower levels. The SCADA system was also upgraded. Next on the list is an engineering study for the facility. 

“We’re trying to tie everything together,” said Craig.

The team is also constructing a $20 million Aero-Mod wastewater treatment plant with hopes of completion in November 2025. It will include Aero-Mod Activated Sludge tanks, Lab with a garage, a headworks building consisting of screen and grit removal equipment, and an ultraviolet light building.

The new plant comes in part thanks to a State Revolving Fund grant and a Community Development Block Grant. 

With these opportunities on the horizon, Higginsville’s utility teams are dedicated to maintaining their successful systems for generations to come.

About the City of Higginsville Utilities   

ELECTRIC: The City of Higginsville Electric Department established service in 1894. It now services more than 2300 customers in and around the city limits of Higginsville. The utility owns and maintains two dual-fuel 20 MW combustion turbines, one dual-fuel unit rated at 4.6MW, and one diesel unit rated at 1.3MW. The City of Higginsville is a member of the Missouri Public Energy Pool (MoPEP) and sells net generation by contract. Its power supply comes from MoPEP and Southwest Power Administration (hydropower). The primary power delivered to the city and generated from the city is transmitted via the Kansas City Power & Light transmission system. The city distribution delivery system consists of two 69KV-12.5KV substations. The city electric system provides service to the I-70 and Hwy 13 junction, which includes an area backup power plant. 

WASTEWATER: The city’s wastewater collection system consists of a 37-mile network of gravity flow sewers that flow toward four treatment facilities. 

WATER: Higginsville owns and operates a 2.5 million-gallon per day state-of-the-art Water Treatment Plant that provides potable drinking water for the citizens of Higginsville, as well as three other communities and a rural water district. A pipeline to the city-owned pumping station 11 miles away on the Missouri River supplies backup capacity during dry seasons.